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***Special Author’s Note Below***

People gawked as Petrie walked through the fairgrounds in his regular Highlander garb. He didn’t like a lot of the comments being made about him, but he wasn’t about to prove them right by acting out.

Instead, Petrie smiled and nodded as he walked by in long strides. The food and women looked very tempting, but the sooner he got the day over with, the sooner he could go back home. The amount of people and lack of greenery was off-putting to him, to say the least.

Murdoc had entrusted him and Lucas Moonstone to barter a temporary peace treaty with the Alconian King, so that was what he was did.. Or rather, what Lucas was currently doing. He’d been kicked out of the room as soon as he’d explained his presence.

Things had started to become a little heated between the two when Lucas had admitted to trading directly with Murdoc, but he had to explain. The truth was the only reason that the leader of the Highlanders would trust a southerner with such a task. Petrie had a feeling that if they hadn’t have been the only ones in the room, and arrived at such an ungodly hour in the morning, the king would’ve had them killed..

Petrie had heard that anyone could enter the events, but he didn’t particularly care. Not until he’d learned that the prizes were bags of gold and possibly a good horse. The animal he could sell, ride, or possibly eat, but the gold was his clencher.

‘That much gold added in with the Moonstone hunting permit; that could save me from pillagin’ for a few years! I have Got to enter Somethin’! Why the bloody hell don’t we do somethin’ like this?! Well.. We do have A Lot better stuff than the Alconians do. Guess ye canny have it all, hehe.’

Coming around the corner of a stall, Petrie caught sight of Skye and Tidas as they waved goodbye to some cat woman. It wasn’t the strangest creature he’d ever seen, but laughed inwardly to himself that she and Skye were obviously friends. ‘I swear that woman could befriend a Barghest, given five minutes.’

.....

As he circled around, Petrie realized that the cat woman was participating in the next event: an obstacle race. He wondered how fast she was, but brushed it aside as he approached the sign-in area. ‘Guess I’ll be findin’ out shortly..’

The man sitting at the table turned four shades whiter upon Petrie’s approach, but relaxed slightly when he saw an Ambassador’s Crest pinned to his kilt. He’d been stopped every few stalls by guards and puffed-up nobles that thought he was just a stupid and lost barbarian.

Getting tired of the harassment quickly, Petrie had pinned the damn crest to the front-center of his kilt. That way all he had to do is point down with a smile, which he found out unnerved some of the ‘finer’ ladies. Petrie personally found it very entertaining.

After he signed in, he walked to the farthest side so Skye and Tidas wouldn’t spot him yet. He wanted to surprise them as he flew past both them, and their wee kitty-cat friend. ‘I can’t wait to see the look on Skye’s face! Tis gonna be hilarious!’

When the race had started, Petrie was making it a point to stay within a grouping of runners that thought pace was the key. He didn’t break ahead of them until they’d neared the side of the track were Skye’s group was.

It took every ounce of focus Petrie had to not burst out in laughter at the face Skye pulled. It was somewhere between a frightened child, and a cartoon character. Tidas looked just as shocked, but had the sense to close his mouth.

As Petrie ran passed them, hot on Shasta’s tail(literally), he smiled and waved at the couple. He heard Skye call out to him, but the money was so close he could smell it. All he had to do was pass the insanely fast cat woman.

As they came up to the second set of hurdles, Petrie managed to nearly get side by side with Shasta. As they pumped their legs into a blur, Petrie partially waved at Shasta as he came to be neck-and-neck with her. She flashed him a look like he was an idiot for not focusing, but it didn’t matter to him; this still wasn’t as fast as he could go..

Taking a deep breath, Petrie yelled to Shasta; “Just to be sure! Ye don’t Need the money do ye?!”

“What?!” Shasta yelled before she tried to pull ahead, but he easily kept pace with her.

“Ye know! Do ye NEED the money?! Like ye don’t got a litter of kittens at home to provide for or somethin’, do ye?!”

“The Fuck Did You Just Say To Me?!” Shasta screamed as her ire instantly peaked at the Highlander.

Seeing her anger flare at his query, Petrie yelled, “My Apologies!”, then he took off like a bat out of hell.

Feeling a surge of pep from her ire, Shasta kicked herself into high gear too. They were back to being neck-and-neck as they cleared a sand trap that they had to swing over, ran through swinging poles that had no rhyme or reason, and finally had to belly-crawl underneath some blunted barbed wire.

With the finish line just ahead, Petrie shifted his arms back and leaned forward slightly. Shasta couldn’t understand what the hell kind of running position he was in, but his speed increased slightly, allowing him to get ahead of Shasta by about four inches.

As they crossed the finish line, Petrie’s balance became slightly unsteady, throwing off his timing, therefore shifting his momentum. He slammed into Shasta as he tried to right his balance, taking them both down.. At least they’d crossed the finish line first.

Seeing the fall, it took every bit of self-control Skye had not to zip over to her friends using her Tank trait. The crowds had been so stunned by the Highlander’s participation that the competition area had been mostly silent except for a few cheers for Shasta. Which mostly came from Lawrence and the twins.

As they reached their friends, Skye was surprised to see Petrie laughing his ass off at the situation while Shasta was reacting exactly how everyone imagined she would: with fury.

“You just wait until I get this stupid bracelet off! I’m gonna kick your ass!” Shasta yelled as she held her arm.

Seeing her demeanor, Skye automatically asked where she was injured. Shasta scoffed and said; “Like an idiot like this could hurt me.. He’s lucky I saw that crest, or he’d be dead already..”

Skye stared at Petrie with hard eyes; “What are ye doin’ with an ambassador’s Crest? Did you steal it?! For the love of the gods, tell me ye didn’t rob a diplomat!”

Petrie laughed hard again before looking at Skye with a smile; “Aye, I miss ye too, Skye.”

Despite herself, Skye returned Petrie’s smile. He was a cocky, sarcastic goofball, but a good person. It was in his best interest to let Tidas die in Warrick Forest, but he didn’t. His honor code was beyond any doubt to either of them, especially Tidas.

He’d been highly suspicious of the Highlander at first, but Petrie had proved himself. Murdoc would’ve probably given anything within his possession to get his hands on an injured, dying prince of Alcon. Considering his rank and notoriety, Tidas would’ve made the ideal hostage.

Petrie could’ve lived the good life amongst his own people, but instead he chose the riskier, higher reward of siding with Skye.. That was the key to it all: Skye. If she hadn’t of spared him, he would’ve died, and she would’ve been left to either the now-deceased Jacob Fowler, or worst case: Marco.

Tidas had peeled at his wife when she’d explained her reason behind sparing him. It was such a naive way to think, but he loved her even more for it. Skye’s naturally kind and caring personality was one of the reasons he still wished she wasn’t taking the Mage Trials in a few months..

“What are you doing here, Petrie? And how are you not dead yet?” Tidas asked bluntly as he stopped his mind from wandering.

“Tidas?! That was quite rude,” Skye scolded her husband as she checked the Nomad’s head for a concussion.

Petrie smirked; “Naw, he be right. If I didn’t have this wee badge thingy hangin’ out, I’da been run through at the gate! Yer Da gave it to me a wee bit ago.”

“And exactly how and why did our father give a Nomadic Highlander an Ambassador’s Creast? My interest is beyond peaked,” Lawrence asked in a light tone as he stood by with his preoccupied children.

Petrie looked up to the suave, noble-looking man with a pleasant grin; “Because Lucas Moonstone asked him to so I wouldn’t get killed.”

Skye scoffed; “I told ye not to walk about in yer Highland garb.. What did ye expect?! Last thing these people knew, we were about to go to war with Murdoc! Of course seein’ a Nomad walkin’ about would freak them out! Be more considerate..”

Petrie shrunk slightly; “But.. But look at my shiny-”

“Ima not lookin’ at it until ye move it! There’s far more visible places to put it than there!” Skye chided him as she finished his checkup, and lightly tapped him on the back of the head.

Lawrence offered Shasta a hand up as the two bantered back and forth. Magnus was waiting at the podium from the previous day, but Marco and Karena were no where to be seen. Magnus brought the microphone to life, and called the group over.

The king seemed impatient to hand off the rewards for the race, so the group quickly made their way over. To alleviate some of the hostility aimed at Petrie, the king quickly announced that a new diplomat would be joining them..

“Diplomat Petrie Heughan is representing the Nomadic Tribes of the Highlanders! At my request, my dear friend Lord Lucas Moonstone had begun doing small trades with the tribes willing to work towards peace. All of Alcon would benefit from avoiding war, so it is in the best interest of this Kingdom to be as respect and cordial as possible to our visiting dignitaries and officials..”

The majority of people applauded their king for taking a diplomatic route versus war. Some were irritated that they were being denied a chance at glory, but were mostly posturing fools that had never seen a real battle. It was pathetic to Tidas, whom was listening for any immediate issues.

“Father, are you going to explain Why the guy is here? The Nomadic leaders won’t bend the knee, so what is it? What does Murdoc want?” Lawrence called out to the king as his children finally noticed the way Petrie was dressed, and were staring at him.

Once Magnus stepped down, Skye watched at her friend walk in a no-so-straight line to them. His complexion was pasty, his pupils looked dilated once he’d gotten close, and his shoulders were oddly hunched. Magnus looked his age in that moment, and Skye knew that there was something seriously wrong with the king again...